Eloah

''Elohim'' ( ) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural in form, in the Hebrew Bible and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the God of Judaism. In other verses it takes plural agreement and refers to gods in the plural.

Morphologically, the word is the plural form of the word () and related to '' el''. It is cognate to the word ''ʾl-h-m'' which is found in Ugaritic, where it is used as the pantheon for Canaanite gods, the children of El, and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most uses of the term ''Elohim'' in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for Deity, is distinct from generic usage as ''elohim'', "gods" (plural, simple noun).

Rabbinic scholar Maimonides wrote that ''Elohim'' "Divinity" and ''elohim'' "gods" are commonly understood to be homonyms.
One modern theory suggests that the notion of divinity underwent radical changes in the early period of Israelite identity and development of Ancient Hebrew religion. In this view, the ambiguity of the term ''elohim'' is the result of such changes, cast in terms of "vertical translatability", i.e. the re-interpretation of the gods of the earliest recalled period as the national god of monolatrism as it emerged in the 7th to 6th century BCE in the Kingdom of Judah and during the Babylonian captivity, and further in terms of monotheism by the emergence of Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE.
Another theory, building on an idea by Gesenius, argues that even before Hebrew became a distinct language, the plural ''elohim'' had both a plural meaning of "gods" and an abstract meaning of "godhood" or "divinity", much as the plural of "father", ''avot'', can mean either "fathers" or "fatherhood". ''Elohim'' then came to be used so frequently in reference to specific deities, both male and female, domestic and foreign (for instance, the goddess of the Sidonians in 1 Kings 11:33), that it came to be concretized from meaning "divinity" to meaning "deity", though still occasionally used adjectivally as "divine".

Grammar and etymology

The word ''elohim'' or'' 'elohiym'' (''ʼĕlôhîym'') is a grammatically plural noun for "gods" or "deities" or various other words in Biblical Hebrew.

In Hebrew, the ending '' -im'' normally indicates a masculine plural. However, when referring to the Jewish God, ''Elohim'' is usually understood to be grammatically singular (i.e., it governs a singular verb or adjective). In Modern Hebrew, it is often referred to in the singular despite the ''-im'' ending that denotes plural masculine nouns in Hebrew.

It is generally thought that ''Elohim'' is derived from ''eloah'', the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun il''. The related nouns ''eloah'' () and ''el'' () are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with ''elohim''. The term contains an added '' heh'' as third radical to the biconsonantal root. Discussions of the etymology of ''elohim'' essentially concern this expansion. An exact cognate outside of Hebrew is found in Ugaritic ''ʾlhm'', the family of El, the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon, in Biblical Aramaic ''ʼĔlāhā'' and later Syriac ''Alaha'' ("God"), and in Arabic '' ʾilāh'' ("god, deity") (or ''Allah'' as "The ingleGod"). "El" (the basis for the extended root ''ʾlh'') is usually derived from a root meaning "to be strong" and/or "to be in front".

Canaanite religion

The word ''el'' (singular) is a standard term for "god" in Aramaic, paleo-Hebrew, and other related Semitic languages including Ugaritic. The Canaanite pantheon of gods was known as '''ilhm'', the Ugaritic equivalent to ''elohim''. For instance, the Ugaritic Baal Cycle mentions "seventy sons of Asherah". Each "son of god" was held to be the originating deity for a particular people ( KTU 2 1.4.VI.46).

Usage

''Elohim'' occurs frequently throughout the Torah. In some cases (e.g., , "''Elohim'' called unto him out of the midst of the bush ..."), it behaves like a singular noun in Hebrew grammar and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, ''elohim'' acts as an ordinary plural of the word ''eloah'' and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, , "You shall have no other gods before me").

The word ''Elohim'' occurs more than 2500 times in the Hebrew Bible, with meanings ranging from "gods" in a general sense (as in , where it describes "the gods of Egypt"), to specific gods (the frequent references to Yahweh as the "elohim" of Israel), to seraphim, and other supernatural beings, to the spirits of the dead brought up at the behest of King Saul in , and even to kings and prophets (e.g., ). The phrase '' bene elohim'', translated "sons of the Gods", has an exact parallel in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts, referring to the council of the gods.

Elohim occupy the seventh rank of ten in the medieval rabbinic scholar Maimonides' Jewish angelic hierarchy. Maimonides wrote: "I must premise that every Hebrew owknows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries ..."Moses Maimonides.
Guide for the Perplexed
' (1904 translation by Friedländer). Starting from the beginning of chapter 2.

With plural verb

In the Hebrew Bible, , ''elohim'' is used with a plural verb. The witch of Endor tells Saul that she saw ''elohim'' ascending (''olim'' , plural verb) out of the earth when she summoned the spirit of the Prophet Samuel at Saul's request. The word ''elohim'', in this context, can refer to spirits as well as deities. Some traditional Jewish sources say that the spirits of deceased human beings are being referred to. The Babylonian Talmud states: "''olim'' indicates that there were two of them. One of them was Samuel, but the other, who was he? – Samuel went and brought Moses with him." Rashi gives this interpretation in his commentary on the verse. Regarding this, Sforno states that "every disembodied creature is known as elohim; this includes the soul of human beings known as he'Image of God'."

In , Abraham, before the polytheistic Philistine king Abimelech, says that "Elohim (translated as 'God') caused (, plural verb) me to wander". Whereas the Greek Septuagint (LXX) has a singular verb form (ἐξήγαγε(ν), aorist II), most English versions usually translate this as "God caused" (which does not distinguish between a singular and plural verb). Regarding this, the Jerusalem Talmud states: "All Names written regarding our father Abraham are holy .e., referring to the one Godexcept one which is profane, ''it was when the gods made me err from my father's house.'' But some say this one also is holy, .e.,'were it not for God, they umansalready would have made me err'." The same disagreement appears in Tractate Soferim, where Haninah ben Ahi R. Joshua maintained that the word is "holy". An alternative view (held by Onkelos, Bahya ben Asher, Jacob ben Asher, Sforno, and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg) is that the word means "gods" and the verse means that Abraham's distaste for the idolatry of his father Terah led him to decide to wander far from home. Others, such as Chizkuni, interpret ''elohim'' as a reference to wicked rulers like Amraphel (often equated with Nimrod).

In , Jacob builds an altar at El-Bethel "because there ''elohim'' revealed himself lural verbto acob. The verb ''niglu'' ("revealed himself") is plural, even though one would expect the singular. This is one of several instances where the Bible uses plural verbs with the name ''elohim''. Some Jewish sources (e.g., Targum Jonathan, Ibn Ezra, add Chizkuni), seeking to explain the plural language of Genesis 35:7, translate ''elohim'' here as "angels", noting that in the story being referenced Jacob experiences a vision of ''malakhei elohim'' (angels of God) ascending and descending the ladder. Radak agrees that this is a reference to angels but also presents the alternative view that the plural form in the verse is a majestic plural, as seen in other verses such as and . ''Elohim'' can be seen used in reference to the angels in a variety of other cases, such as in and .

With singular verb

''Elohim'', when meaning the God of Israel, is mostly grammatically singular, and is commonly translated as "God", and capitalised. For example, in , it is written: "Then Elohim (translated as God) said (singular verb), 'Let us (plural) make (plural verb) man in our (plural) image, after our (plural) likeness. In the traditional Jewish understanding of the verse, the plural refers to God taking council with His angels (who He had created by this point) before creating Adam. It should also be noted that in the following verse of Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his wnimage, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them"; the singular verb בָּרָא (bārāʾ), meaning "He created" is used as it is elsewhere in all the acts of creation featured in Genesis. This shows us that the actual creation of man (and everything else) in Genesis was a singular act by God alone.

Wilhelm Gesenius and other Hebrew grammarians traditionally described this as the (plural of excellence), which is similar to the (plural of majesty, or "Royal we").
Gesenius comments that the singular Hebrew term ''Elohim'' is to be distinguished from ''elohim'' used to refer to plural gods, and remarks that:

There are a number of notable exceptions to the rule that ''Elohim'' is treated as singular when referring to the God of Israel, including , , and , and notably the epithet of the "Living God" ( etc.), which is constructed with the plural adjective, ''Elohim ḥayyim'' () but still takes singular verbs. The treatment of ''Elohim'' as both singular and plural is, according to Mark Sameth, consistent with a theory put forth by Guillaume Postel (16th century) and (19th century) that the God of Israel was understood by the ancient priests to be a singular, dual-gendered deity.

In the Septuagint and New Testament translations, ''Elohim'' has the singular even in these cases, and modern translations follow suit in giving "God" in the singular. The Samaritan Torah has edited out some of these exceptions.

Angels and judges

In a few cases in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), Hebrew ''elohim'' with a plural verb, or with implied plural context, was rendered either ''angeloi'' ("angels") or ("the judgement of God"). These passages then entered first the Latin Vulgate, then the English King James Version (KJV) as "angels" and "judges", respectively. From this came the result that James Strong, for example, listed "angels" and "judges" as possible meanings for ''elohim'' with a plural verb in his ''Strong's Concordance'', and the same is true of many other 17th–20th century reference works. Both Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon and the Brown–Driver–Briggs Lexicon list both "angels" and "judges" as possible alternative meanings of ''elohim'' with plural verbs and adjectives.

Gesenius and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg have questioned the reliability of the Septuagint translation in this matter. Gesenius lists the meaning without agreeing with it. Hengstenberg stated that the Hebrew Bible text never uses ''elohim'' to refer to "angels", but that the Septuagint translators refused the references to "gods" in the verses they amended to "angels".

The Greek New Testament (NT) quotes in Hebrews 2:6b-8a, where the Greek NT has () in vs. 7, quoting (8:6 in the LXX), which also has in a version of the Greek Septuagint. In the KJV, ''elohim'' (Strong's number H430) is translated as "angels" only in Psalm 8:5.

The KJV translates ''elohim'' as "judges" in
Exodus 22:8
twice i

as "judge" i

and as "gods" i

an

Angels cited in the Hebrew Bible

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